December 12, 2008 | Yvonne Lim Wilson
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The room was abuzz with excited chatter. Cameras and camcorders were everywhere to record the moment as families gathered together with pride.
From photographs to oral history summaries, calligraphy and crafts, Vietnamese culture and history were celebrated as part of a one-day special exhibit at the Bob Bullock Museum on Nov. 23.
The exhibit, “Painting a Picture of Vietnamese Americans in Texas,” chronicles the history of Vietnamese Americans moving to a new country and settling into Texas. The Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation, the Center for Asian American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum sponsored the exhibit.
State Rep. Hubert Vo gave the opening speech talking about the significance of celebrating Vietnamese heritage. Vo, a first generation Vietnamese American, is the state’s first Vietnamese American to serve on the Texas State Legislature.
“The Vietnamese American heritage is the American heritage,” Vo said. “We have just only begun to unveil the potential that lies in our community. Today we celebrate the Vietnamese heritage and art.”
This January, UT offered the its first Vietnamese history and culture class. Class instructor Linda Ho Peche said the time is ripe to share this history.
“The Vietnamese are a relatively new immigrant community. It immigrated in large numbers in 1975, and it is now that the second generation is really coming into fruition – many elder community members want to make sure a sense of Vietnamese identity is preserved in the younger generation,” Peche said.
For Peche’s students learning about Vietnamese history was not just about reading books, but it was also a hands-on experience as they conduced oral histories from first generation immigrants.
Linda Nguyen, a UT graduate student, was one such student who interviewed her father Ngoc Xuan Nguyen for the exhibit. Mr. Nguyen was a member of the South Vietnamese navy in 1965 before immigrating to the United States.
“I learned so much from my dad. He had told me bits and pieces about the war, his life in Vietnam and America, and now all the pieces came together,” Linda said of her interview with him.
The oral histories were coordinated in part through the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation, a national organization based in Austin that preserves, promotes and celebrates Vietnamese American heritage.
The Foundation collected more than 200,000 documents and photos related to Vietnamese political prisoners. Nancy Bui, a founder and current president of the Foundation, said the organization aims to complete 500 oral histories internationally.
“[During the war] all the history of South Vietnamese, all of our books have been burned,” she said. “It is very important for us to record our history for our identity. We need to explain to our younger generations about why and how we came here and what it means.”
Preserving the history of one of the fastest growing minority populations and promoting cultural understanding is important work and the exhibit shows that Vietnamese Americans are up to the task.
“Like it or not, Vietnamese Americans are part of American culture and history … learning from peoples’ experiences are a good thing,” Bui said.
For more information about The Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation, visit www.vietnameseamerican.org.
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